12.14.2006

Forget the question

By now, the buzz has already hit the streets of Miami. Riley wants Iverson. Pocket sports jocks all had an opinion.

Do you think this man cares?

First off, not a mention of not needing to tinker. Everyone thought it premature to do it last year, and we all saw how well that turned out for the Heat.

Others question trading Dorell Wright. Many call it a pipe-dream. Same fools who carooned Caron Butler as too costly for Shaq, or felt that Riley didn't have enough to get Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway, and the Big Fella.

By now, we should all realize that if Riley manages to somehow rob/invade the Sixers of Iverson for a Doggie Bag, you can finally plant him gloriously at the apex of Basketball executives in the modern area. No one has been able acquire as many HOFers for peanuts. Is it going to happen? Who are we to question whether Riley can get the Sixers to pull the trigger.

He’s already courting the Answer. Riles is making his hard-on for AI well known, and with funnels like Stephen A. Smith around to convert news into reality, it isn’t out of the question that one of the spare, used parts of the Heat championship roster can go north to toil for Mo Cheeks. You don’t want to have AI moody.

But this isn’t about Riley. Or if this trade is going down, which it certainly could be.

No, this has vast implications that could result in a titanic shift in where we focus our passion for style.

Watch the Suns. They look like a slew of well oiled athletes that do a good job of working in unison, and marching/pacing along together.

Who else do you love? Before long people are going to be clammoring about the Knicks and how well they rebound.

D-Wade, AI and the Diesel could form a roster considered one of the most compelling in the history of basketball. MJ, Pippen and Rodman are no comparison... neither the tree men of 80s Celtics, 8 wonders of 60s Celtics and the excess of Showtime compares.

How Iverson potentially plays with Wade, Shaq and the 11 year old kid from Notre Dame should leave us all in agape wonder. Does that mean you want the trade to happen? It’s a bright thought outside an otherwise morbid story that is more disappointing than the Artest fiasco.

Get past the resentment of last year’s finals. Hold the idea in your heart for a moment and wonder watching bruising style in form. Shaq is on worn treads, but still commands the post. Wade apparently is both invisible and able to fly - and we all know what AI brings. Beat him with wooden bats and he’ll still sink a dagger from long range. The purest heart of a Champion and a guard who we hope should never stop playing..

I wanted to see him with KG and the Wolves. The Nuggets seems like a waste of time. I’m not that greedy to wish him for Miami, but know that the implications will make me recoil and redirect my focus even in the uncaring afterglow of the title run.

It might be time to pony up and finish planning the tattoo of Riles’ book cover for the small of my back. The man will deserve a fancy tramp stamp if he delivers again.

This shit is tearing me apart, though. I've held out hope for the longest time that Billy K. would either have an epiphany of common sense or get his ass canned in favor of someone more familiar with that faculty. I wanted AI to make another run in Philly. I thought maybe that even with a deprecated C-Webb and the right coach (not Mr. Mo, maybe like, Adelman, who actually knows how to use C-Webb's remaining talents) they could make a little noise is a crumbling conference. But I knew they were faint hopes. The answer for the Answer lay in a move, and I now I'm simply left fearing that he'll be dumped in some gulag archipelago of the league.

And credit to Simba for the article Shoals linked previously. At least he has a nuanced view of AI, which still startles me, but I appreciate. Bubba C. has his flaws, but all the writers and talking heads making it sound like he'd be the death of any team to which he might be traded just piss me off.

Miami is intriguing ... I was just hoping that he might end up on a team where he could finally run. Could he make Dwyane secretly unboring?

after watching the nuggets get d-fucking-stroyed by the wizards, i really hope AI doesn't end up in denver. that squad is asscheeks; by the end of the year melo we'll be in stars-without-hope therapy with kg. it'd be a horizontal move for AI and he deserves better.

miami? makes a lot of sense in both reality and FD... which are becoming one in the same for all of us.

Has everyone gone crazy? wade and iverson together would be a disaster. they both need the ball in their hands, and both slash away as much as they can--they'd either be tripping over each other's feet or taking turns watching each other. is El Huracan Andreo an alias for isiah thomas? and who could the sixers possibly want to get back? the average age of the heat's roster is like 35.

Of course, KG and AI belong together. In another universe, Philly gambles on KG in the 1995 draft with the #3 pick and still gets Bubba Chuck with #1 in '96.

But we're talking about Kevin McHale and Billy King here, two of the most incompetent GM's in the league. I'm dubious of their ability to figure out how to get this deal done, particularly when Minnesota has 0 assets.

We can only pray that Leon Rose and the competent GM of a third team are working hard to make what must be a true FD fantasy come true.

[If it weren't for the fact that personalities make it impossible, am I wrong to think that AI to Chicago for Ben Gordon, Chris Duhon, and PJ Brown is actually among the best trade possibilities out there?]

mr. six--that bulls trade you proposed would make so much sense, it's ridiculous. the bulls need an alpha dog, and hinrich and thabo would complement AI really well in the backcourt. the bulls would still have young talent (TT, thabo, deng), as well as big ben and nocioni (who's older than you might think--27).

the sixers would get a young scoring machine (who's better than foye, whom they reportedly want from minnesota), a solid young point guard, and pj brown's contract.

of course, the personalities that make this all impossible are scott skiles and AI himself.

From a psychological standpoint, I would hope AI would want to go to a team that actually needs him in order to get over the hump. You could very easily argue the current Heat squad has little chance (even w/ Shaq) of repeating, but they're still not gonna be underdogs by any stretch in '06-'07.

In other words, if AI joins the Heat and they do repeat, you just know he'll get a disproportionate amount of credit relative to any other team (save perhaps the Spurs) he may potentially help to win a title. Clearly the man's not yet in his desperate-for-a-title GP/Alonzo/Mailman dotage by a long shot, which is why Chicago or Minny or LAC would be infinitely more satisfying.

On the other hand, it would be a fabulous alchemy. And AI very well may not care about how his title grab is perceived by the masses.

i'm in denial. until AI is clad in another team's uniform, i'm convinced that he'll rejoin the sixers and the whole repulsive episode will simply enter history as yet another humiliation inflicted by that rascal billy king upon the most important player since jordan.

by all accounts, philly really wants randy foye. is his name just being thrown out more than the others (ellis, maggette, etc...) because a lot of the media (and every regular of this site, including myself) so desperately wants ai in minnesota, or is the deal actually somewhat close, and mchale is reluctant to move him?

AI to the Bulls would be a disaster of epic proportions. Do you really think that Iverson could maintain his sanity under Skiles' neo-fascist rule? It would be like the Mutiny on the Bounty with Skiles as Anthony Hopkins, AI doing Mel Gibson and Ben Wallace playing that dude who helped Mel Gibson. How about Iverson in Atlanta? JJ's time with the suns has proven that he doesn't have to have the ball in his hands at all times to succeed.

oh yeah, there's no way AI and skiles could co-exist, and there's no way paxon is going to fire skiles, so it's never going to happen. but, other than THAT problem, it would be a perfect fit.

atlanta has said they're not interested in AI, which makes zero sense to me. they have serious attendance problems, which i would assume AI solves immediately. plus, AI in the capital of black america is pretty amazing. on the court, the hawks have a huge hole at point guard and a glut of young players. unless billy king is even dumber than i think, they would probably have to part with either josh smith or marv, which would be tough, but they'd still have a decent squad without him. JJ, AI, childress, marv, and zaza is not a bad starting 5. lue would be back to his proper place as a backup.

Atlanta seems like the best fit with the most pieces to go back to Philly, too. Unfortnately for the Illadelph (I can rep, my family is from) this doesn't sound any better than the Barkley deal which still lingers in the air. Philly should be able to get more out of that deal including a draft pick and Marvin Williams instead of Josh Smith.

That trade sounds like the 76ers are getting back about $.70 on the dollar, maybe less.

whoever philly gets, it's going to a 3 quarters for a dollar deal. philly's dealing from a position of weakness. they HAVE to get rid of AI.

smith (or marv), claxton, and wright gives them 3 guys who could start on a bad team or provide solid backup minutes on a good team, and one of them is very young with a lot of potential. it could be a lot worse.

In a trade like that, I think you need to get more expiring deals and rookies instead of semi-warm bodies. They'd be committed to Claxton for three more seasons with around $20M left after this season. Another year after this for Wright, as well.

For it to work out well for the Sixers, I bet that a multi-team deal will end up happening.

Let me just add to the Chicago point. I've been screaming about this since the deal broke. THAT TEAM MAKES THE FINALS WITH AI. No question. Fuck Skiles. This isn't the NFL, and Skiles is no John Wooden. It's infuriating. That team is perfect for him and Skiles has ruined it. It kills me.

I too would love him to go to Minny, but it just seems impossible. I've been trying to imagine what Denver would be like with a starting lineup of Iverson, J.R, Melo, Najera, and Camby, but it just makes my mind shake. Still I'd be excited to see it.

As for the Hawks: It would be amazing to have him in Atlanta, and I know Johnson would be the best player he's ever played with, but that team would still be like four players away from getting out of the second round.

Miami would be a dream, and Iverson would make it work, but I don't think even Riles and his salary cap guru could make this work.

And, just to conclude: Fuck Skiles. He has now surpassed coach K as the embodiment of everything that is wrong with basketball.,

As a devoted T-wolves fan, the last person I want is AI. What's left over once they have to dump their supporting cast for Iverson? They made a smart move getting Foye and lucked out BIG with Craig Smith (rookie of the year). T-Wolves, as they are now, are better than the Cassell, Spree, KG mix of a few years back. If anything they need a center, not a guard, and if Blount wasn't getting at least 10 and 5 every game, they'd be dying for one. AI has the highest number of TO per game in the NBA, a stat the T-wolves desperately need to lower. No thanks, go to Miami, Boston, anywhere but here. Wait for the Wolves to turn it around mid-season, if they can't, then trade KG and Davis next year and build from there.

Yeah, Skiles and AI were the irreconcilable personalities I had in mind. I would be the NBA version of 80's style nuclear MAD. And the press says Paxson doesn't like Ivey, either, so there goes the one trade that really makes sense--dead for all the wrong reasons. I almost wish it would happen exactly for the resulting holocaust, but I've a sick mind.

It's also too bad that AI doesn't seem interested in the Warriors. Him playing Nellie ball is what I've waited 11 years to see.

wv: zrdybpt - the sound I make at the idea of AI to ATL. A fantastic cultural fit, but that's about all.

As for someone saying I'm a hidden Isiah Thomas... both of these guys (D-Wade and AI) move without the ball very well. Shaq is going to command double teams, and the Heat would have to run a lot of sets to give each guy their touches. And it would work because of second chance opportunities and (hopefully) steady ball movement.